You often only get seriously interested when you realize how difficult it is. That goes for certain people whom you want to get to know, mountain passes where you want to go over, countries you want to visit, or to secure mirrors onto a piece of cloth.

I have always been interested in textiles, and the different forms of enhancing it, my eyes were always drawn to elaborate handmade clothes and shawls. On every trip I took handicrafts back home; I used it, looked at it, and I did admired it, but my thoughts didn’t go beyond: wow, this is laborious!

Whenever I was in India (over 15 times) I learned more about the country, culture, manners, and people. I never wondered how or why mirrors were sewn on fabric, there was so much more to ask.

I walked through bazaars in Afghanistan, but not before I had bought a new outfit. The clothes that I wore had been made in Pakistan and, believe it or not, were much too revealing for this country. Besides a wide kameez tunic, I had a black wide pair of trousers, salwar with mirrors made at the tailor. Because black in Afghanistan is never just black. The women who are to be veiled and covered up, ensure that decoration will appear. This is often at the bottom of the legs because these are often visible.

The ankle part of a pair of trousers from the Iranian Gulf -Hormozgān- peeps underneath the long black chador.

I lived with an indigenous tribe in Pakistan, a 5-hour walk from the Afghan border, where I embroidered. I went to remote corners of the world, to places where I could not be any closer to the origins of shisha mirror work. I bought stuff where small mirrors were sewn on. I admired it, and again, thought not so much about it.

I thought how beautiful it was or where the origin of this art was from. Just like I wondered at the origin and reason of using cowrie shells as jewelry, or decoration, far from the origin of these shells. Or in Africa I wondered about the kilo’s beaded necklaces around someone’s neck. Tribal, nomadic, cultural and traditional styles appeal to me much more than global trends that show so many similarities.

A bit more about mirror embroidery

Mirror work is a style known for centuries and is called ‘shisha’ embroidery or ‘abhala bharat’ (abhala means pieces of glass, bharat could mean ‘to be maintained’ in Sanskrit). The term shisha means glass in Persian, from where the word transferred to Urdu/Hindi and other related languages.

Shisha or abhla bharat embroidery (ShishehPersian,Abhala BharatHindi,Abhla BharatGujarati), or mirror-work, is a type of embroidery which attaches small pieces of mirrors onto fabric. Mirror embroidery is spread throughout Asia, and today can be found in the traditional embroidery of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, and Indonesia.

Tiny shops full of treasures from deeply traditional folks are sold by easy going salesman.

This is an art form in which mirrors of various shapes are fixed on to the fabric through embroidery. In recent times however, mirrors have been replaced by reflective luminescent metal pieces of different shapes and sizes. Coins are also possible to use, and I have started to learn this technique with cut out pieces of CD.

Origin and History

Shisha or mirror embroidery is traced back to the 17th century in Iran and it is said to have been brought to India through various travelers during the Mughal era. The use of decorative mirror or shisha was introduced by Muslims during the MughalEmpire (approx. 1556 – 1857). However shisha embroidery was not used on Mughal clothing but rather found only on traditional folk clothes of South Asia and Central Asia.

The mirrors are affixed on to the fabric by special cross stitch embroidery that encloses the mirror, and provides it a casing. Although the most popular shape of the mirror that is used commonly is circular, there are other geometrical shapes such as square, triangular, hexagonal and polygonal that are used for embroidery.

Traditionally, shisha or abhla bharat work was done by using mica

Mica is a mineral which you could see as masses stuck together with a very good cleavage. The nearly perfect cleavage, which is the most prominent characteristic of mica, is explained by the hexagonal sheet-like arrangement of its atoms, which means it is easy to split in sheets.

The word mica is derived from the Latin word mica, meaning a crumb, and probably influenced by micare, to glitter. And I remember well when my parents came over to Karimabad, the Himalaya in Pakistan, we would wash ourselves with buckets of water shining with mica; the Earth was giving us an abundance of glitter, not dirt.

Except from mica other materials were used for shisha embroidery. Beetle, tin, silver or coins were not uncommon, depending on the region, to use for stitching shiny shapes onto fabrics. This was replaced by glass blown into large thin bubbles and broken into small pieces for this use. Traditional shisha mirrors have a convex curve due to this process. The tradition of making circular shisha was extensively done by women in South Asia, who use special scissors that are repeatedly dampened to prevent flying shards, and snip them into smaller circular shapes.

Contemporary shisha work almost entirely consists of mass-produced, machine-cut glass shisha with a silvered backing. Today most craft stores in South Asia carry small mirrors purchasable for use in embroidery, which come in varying shapes and sizes. Two women I know went to India and brought back some mirrors for me, which can be bought by the kilo. Or a lot less…

Influences over the Years

Mirror work was mostly done by the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana, hence these three states form the major hubs for mirror work. Nowadays it is most common to see shisha in parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur (bordering Myanmar), Baluchistan (region in Pakistan which borders east Iran), Punjab region (both India and Pakistan) and Sindh (Southeast of Pakistan) bordering Rajasthan and Gujarat; situated right next to the Rann of Kutch, a heaven for much embroider artwork. The people in these states wear bright-colored clothes that are embellished with shisha work. Such a pity that I wasn’t into shisha embroidery then as I am now, because I have cycled through all these states, except Manipur. One reason to go back now!

Beautiful daughter of a nomadic cattleman family near Narayan Sarovar, Gujarat, India.

By others, shisha is believed to originate from the Jats of Banni, a cattle breeding nomadic Muslim community, on the Indian subcontinent. The wealthy classes wore clothing and made furnishings embroidered with precious metal threads and jewels. Camel girths and animal decoration is embroidered using colored silks, metal threads, sadi (metal threads) and much shisha.

For instance, the Jats of Banni make use of mirrors of varying sizes and shapes to embellish their fabric. The Garari Jat community on the other hand, make use of tiny mirrors embroidered on to the yoke/collar of the dress with multicolored threads. The Kathi embroidery of Gujarat makes use of mirrors by stitching them on to the portion of the eyes of animal faces or the center of a flower. Hence, each state and each community has evolved their own specific style of mirror work. Mirror or shisha is one of the most attractive heritages of India in terms of embroidery.

Religious significance

Among Hindus in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana the use of shisha can be seen in a torana; a type of gateway, tied to the front door. This is believed to ward off evil eyes. This belief is also held by Muslims and Jains living in those regions.

These few words floated through my mind when I was cycling in India, in 2014. I had come from Oman by plane, landed in Cochin and moved on my own power towards the Himalaya. Cycling in India as a woman on your own in summer is hard. Time enough to think while battling the traffic, the people, the heat, the road.